Price Impact
Price impact is the immediate change in an asset's market price resulting from a trade execution. Unlike slippage, which refers to the realized cost, price impact measures the causal relationship between order flow and price movement.
When a buy order is filled, it consumes the lowest available ask prices, effectively shifting the market higher. The magnitude of this impact depends on the size of the order relative to the depth of the order book.
Large trades in illiquid markets produce significant price impact, while small trades in deep markets have negligible effects. Market participants study price impact to optimize their execution strategies and minimize their market footprint.
In algorithmic trading, models are used to estimate the expected price impact of an order to determine the optimal slicing strategy. High price impact can signal institutional buying or selling, which other traders may use to adjust their positions.
It is a central concept in market microstructure that connects order flow to price discovery.